Throughout history, sutures have been utilized to capture and retain tissue in approximation during a wound healing period. More recently, medical staplers and staples have been developed to speed the closure process. While conventional sutures and medical staplers can be very effective, they are each prone to infection, unsightly scarring and can require subsequent medical follow ups for removal of the suture or staple by a medical professional.
In a desire to improve upon the existing techniques for wound closure, an approach to wound closure through the insertion of a bioabsorbable fastener is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,726,705, 7,112,214, 7,547,315, 7,686,200, 7,950,559, 8,066,736 and 8,074,857 and US Patent Publications 2012/0145765 and 2013/0267997 to Peterson et al., all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. These devices and methods have been commercialized as the INSORB® available from Incisive Surgical, Inc. of Plymouth, Minn. By using a dermal insertion and fastening approach as taught by Peterson et al., visible scarring is minimized and incidences of infection are significantly reduced.
In order to successfully implement the dermal insertion techniques and methods taught by Peterson et al., it is especially important that tissue on opposed sides of a wound be properly positioned and retained during introduction of a fastener. As such, it would be advantageous to further improve upon the devices and methods as taught by Peterson et al. so as to further assist medical professionals in properly grasping and positioning tissue for presentation to a bioabsorbable fastener.